Improvement in vaporizing petroleum



H.v R. FOUTE. VAPOMZING PETROLEUM.

Elm-98,046. Patented Deo. 21, 1869.

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dilated tatrt gatwrtiiiw HENRY R. FOOTE, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

Letters Patent No. 98,046, dated DecemberY 21, 1869.

To all-persons to whom these presents may come Be it known that I, HENRY It. FOUTE, of Boston, 1n the county of Suffolk, and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Means of Vaporizing Petroleum and Generating Heat; and I do hereby declare the same to be fullydescribed in the following speciiication, and -repiesentedin the accompanying drawings, of which Figure l is aA sectional front-end elevation of a steam-boiler, and its furnace, as provided 'with my invention.

Figure 2 is a vertical and longitudinal section thereof. Figure 3 is a horizontal section of the furnace, show-. ing the pipes for the distribution of the gaseousproducts of the steam and petroleum. A

The main purposeof my invention isto increase the heating-powers of the furnace, and improve the combustion of its charge of fuel, particularly when the kind used is anthracite coal. In the drawings` t i A denotes a steam-boiler, of the tubular kind, ar-

ranged within a furnace, B, whose grate'is shown at O. t

Alongside ofthe furnace, andsupportedby a bracket, a, is a close tank or vessel for holdingpetroleum.

Within the fire-place of the furnace and its grate is a series of pipes, b -b I), dac., all of which open out of and extend from a common cylindrical head, c.

Each of the pipes along its' upper. edgelis perforated with a series of hema-arranged at, or about at equal distances asunder, and these pipes, instead of being arranged entirelyabove the grate, may each be disposed within one of a series of grooves made within the grate, the same being as shown at (ld, in fig. 1. The grooves serve to protect the pipes from being bent or injured by the fuel, and byinstruments when introduced into the fuel for the purpose of effect-ing the discharge of ashes therefrom between the bars of the grate and into the ash-pit e," a pipe, f, provided with a stop-cock, g, leading out ofthe top ofthe boiler and into a4 steam-superheating pipe, It, which goes through the fire-place and over the grate, and thence turns upward toward and over, and is passed down through the top of the petroleum-tanks, and extends near-ly to the bottom of such tank or vessel.

Furthermore, a pipe, i, furnished with a stop-cock, k, leads out of the upper part of the petroleumftank, and terminates at bottom in a dischargefcock, l. A branch-pipe, m, leads from the lower part of the pipe li into one end of the cylindrical head or vessel c. 'When the boiler is supplied with water, and the fuel isin a sta-tc o f combustion in the fire-place of the furnace, and the tank is charged with liquid petroleum,

the apparatus wiil'be ina state for operation.

Steam, after having been raised in theboiler, will tiow into and through the superheatiug-tube, where it "wii be superheated, and in this state will'pass into the petroleum and will'vaporize it.

The steam, with the vapors of the petroleum, will thence flowinto the vessel c, from whence they will vfind their way through the discharge-tubes into the fuel, and by b'eing burned therewith, will not only facilitate combustion of the fuel, but produce an intense heat underneath the boiler, and thereby operate to great advantage in effecting generation of steam therein. t

It `is well known that when steam, of about the temperature of boiling water, is forced through petroleum,` only a portion thereof, containing the lighter vapors, will be vaporized, a much higher degree of heat being required4 to effectV the'vaporization of the rest of the petroleum.

It is vtherefore forl this purpose that I make use' of superheated steam, or thatheated to about 4000 Fahrenheit, and' by so doing, I .am able to accomplish the breaking up of the petroleum.-

This steam, with the oily vapors produced, I next introduce into the fire-place and among the fuel, and thereby facilitateits combustion, and effect a great increase of 'the beat.

I am aware ofthe United States patents numbered 39,918, 49,358, 54,214, and69,253, from the subjects of Awhich my invention, although analogousv in some respects, `differs materially in others; that is to say, it contains a closedpetroleum-tank, arranged wholly outside of the boiler and furnace, provided with a grate for holding fuel.v It also has a pipe to lead from the boiler into and through the furnace, and directly into the petroleum-tank, so as to superheat steam, and convey it, so super-heated, into the petroleum of such tank, whereby the said petroleum will be vaporizefd in the tank, and. separate from the furnace- And furthermore, the petroleum-vapors are subsequently led from thetank by a pipe, and discharged, by a system .of branch-pipes, into the furnace, and onv or ,into the fuel, when in combustion on the grate of such furnace, all of which is not shownby anyone of such patents. -The vapomzing of the petroleum byv superheated steam alone, in a tank outside of the furnace, is not represented in either of the subjects of the said patents.

Nor do we find, in either of such patents, any ar.- rangement of each of the discharge-pipes l) within a groove of a fuel-supporting grate of a furnace, 4or within the said grate and below its fuel-supporting surface, such arrangement being productive of new and useful effects;

The arrangement of the petroleum-tank outside of the furnace, and thevaporization of the contents by means of superheated steam,and the introduction of vthe combined ,steam and oily vapors, by along pipe` into a series of distribntion-pipes arranged -in the furnace, diminishes the liability of explosion of the tank, and is of advantage in other respects.

What, therefore, I ciaim as my invention, is as follows: l

For thel purpose of increasing the heat of a furnace, and improving the combustion of its charge of coal orother fuel when on its grate, the employ-4 `nient of super-heated steam in themanner set forth,

to vaporize petroleumV in a vessel or tank outside of and separate i'om the furnace, and theiutrocluction of the combined 4steam and petroleum-vapor fromsueh vesselint'o the furnace, or into and over the fuel thereof when in combustion therein.

Also. the'combination aswell as the arrangement 'sama v HENRY R. FOUTE.

Witnesses:

R. H. EDDY, F. P. HALE, Jr.-

of the snperheatingsteam pipe with thefnmace, its, boiler and fuel-supporting grate, the petroleum-tank, 

